Recent mass shootings in the U.S.

Indeed. The principle of "do not try to enforce a law that people might use violence to break" is a well-established and rational one.

Not really sure what's expected in a country with more guns in circulation than people.

Every few years international media picks up a particularly tragic shooting and runs with it while Americans sit back unphased.

The best they can do is to ban future sales and make resale of those weapons illegal. Of course the people who already have them now and want to keep them would just hide them the way criminals in the UK do if they were made illegal to possess so that wouldn’t really change much.

The US is not a particularly rational place, they let citizens have anti material rifles in the first place. When it comes to US law I try not to apply reason or logic because there often is none.

We shouldn't attribute it all to some kind of bizarre American irrationality though. There are actually powerful lobbies behind the mania for guns in the US, not least, the arms manufacturers, who make fortunes out of these massacres as every time there is another outrage, gun sales shoot upwards.

Most of the popular myths about guns in America (they make you safer; they are part of American tradition; they are embedded in apple pie, mom & pop family values) are just that - myths. They are deliberately promoted and promulgated by the gun lobbies. For example, the myth that Americans have always been armed - before 1960, very few US households outside remote farming areas had guns in the house. Or the myth that guns protect you - all evidence shows that guns in the hands of the poorly trained make one more, not less vulnerable.

These propaganda onslaughts were carefully designed by admen working for the gun lobbies in the 60s and 70s.

It isn't the early 1900's anymore where automatic meant rechambering automatically, that is an outdated term.

Most of the popular myths about guns in America...they are embedded in apple pie

If the only practical difference between an "automatic" and "not automatic" version of the same rifle is a few mm of movement of one finger between each shot, the differentiation is meaningless - especially if every round in a 30 round magazine causes a fatality (something that is actually more likely with a semi than fully auto).

It is basically a religion for many of them, reinforced through indoctrination which take the form of propaganda. The gun lobby is nothing short of cult like.

Based on fear. Particularly of the black man. The NRA is a profoundly racist institution.

I've never understood the "Making it illegal won't help because criminals will still have them" argument. Most mass shootings and homicides use legally held guns and few are committed by criminals on civilians. The proponents seem to be saying that if 0 deaths is not possible it is better to have 1000 deaths than 500.
Also, why don't they apply the same argument to drugs?

Once it becomes as much a part of society as it has, it’s very difficult to make it illegal. There’s so much money involved and there’s too many people who don’t want their guns taken away. If they were to ban guns today it’d be in place until January 2025 and then the next regime would reverse it anyway.

Doesn’t the argument kind of apply to drugs anyway? They are illegal but so common there’s no real point in them being illegal.

it is difficult to imagine a suitably shocking event to make the Government do something.

tbh these shootings are just accepted as The American Way... it is difficult to imagine a suitably shocking event to make the Government do something.

maybe if people invaded an important Government building... obviously that couldn't happen

Reagan assassinated in 1981 perhaps coming on the heels of the murder of Lennon?

Reagan assassinated in 1981 perhaps coming on the heels of the murder of Lennon?